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‘Longmire’ strong in third season

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longmire cast outdoors

For readers of Craig Johnson’s series of books about Wyoming Sheriff Walt Longmire, the A&E TV series version of the show was something of a challenge at first.

In the first season, two years ago, so many elements from Johnson’s quirky, gritty, mystical and funny series of crime novels seemed … “off.” Longmire and longtime friend Henry Standing Bear didn’t seem old enough (in the books they’re Vietnam veterans; in the series they’re played by middle-aged hunks Robert Taylor and Lou Diamond Phillips) for the well-worn characters they are; the ever-changing roster of deputies was pared down; the relationships were streamlined and the early books’ Philadelphia subplots were gone.

But so many things were so right. Taylor and Phillips are great, gruff and sardonic by turn; Katee Sackhoff was letter-perfect as Deputy Vic Moretti, as was Cassidy Freeman as Walt’s daughter, lawyer Cady, and Adam Bartley as “The Ferg,” a deputy holdover from the books; and Bailey Chase initially seemed written just to be antagonistic as deputy Branch Connaly but quickly grew to portray a complex character.

The entire series, in fact, grew. Creators and producers John Coveny and Hunt Baldwin quickly seemed to realize they needed to import Johnson’s storylines, at least to some degree, and even more importantly adopt the mood the author invokes in his books: The stories are set in a Wyoming that is by turns beautiful, hard, cold, hot, parched, magical and gritty.

As the third season begins, I’m glad to say that “Longmire” has maintained the successful mix that Coveny and Baldwin began refining shortly after the show got on its start.

Longmire himself, as played by Taylor, is crusty and deceptively straightforward but has a real edge to him. Henry – in jail in connection with the death of the man who killed Longmire’s wife – is struggling to survive and might become a pawn in a larger game. And the deputies are in turmoil, as always.

At the same time, “Longmire” does well with its plots of the week. most recently Walt and Vic’s crusade to bring to justice the person responsible for the death of a Russian teen whose body was found in a Wyoming creek.

Her murder involved international adoption, foster parent scam artists and Walt’s smoldering sense of outrage.

I’m still missing the absence of the Philly connection in the series and I regret the mystery of Walt’s wife’s death – a complication that’s not in the books but was probably necessary to give the series more of an over-arching mystery storyline – but almost everything else about “Longmire” the TV series works.

madchen amick longmire deena

Oh yeah, one element I’m missing this season: Madchen Amick as Dena, Henry’s girlfriend. The former “Twin Peaks” star appeared last year in a few episodes. So far this year it’s been mentioned in an aside that she stole money from Henry’s safe. Here’s hoping that means she will show up eventually and that the comment isn’t a way of writing her out of the series.

 

‘Longmire” hews closer to Johnson’s books

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craig johnson longmire the cold dish

When I wrote about the first season of A&E’s “Longmire” in June 2012, my natural inclination was to compare the books and TV series. I’d been enjoying the books for a couple of years and hoped for the best for the series. The best I could say – I mean that sincerely – was that the show captured the characters and flavor but not the plot integrity of author Craig Johnson’s mysteries, set in a rural Wyoming county.

I noted some differences between the series and the books. The series omitted a few characters – Sheriff Walt Longmire’s predecessor in office,  crusty old retired sheriff Lucian, notably – and added a few, including Lucian’s nephew, ambitious deputy Branch Connally, who wants to unseat Walt in an election.

Missing was the forged-in-Vietnam bond between Walt and pal Henry Standing Bear, leaving the Bear’s motivations sometimes in doubt.

Also absent were a Philadelphia connection – deputy Vic is from there, and it is home to Walt’s daughter Cady’s law practice – and the sense of the mystical and spiritual, as Henry nudges Walt toward a deeper connection with the Native American spirits of the Wyoming countryside. Also absent, to some extent, were the Crow and Cheyenne supporting characters that filled the books.

Maybe the most egregious variation from the books is how the series has dealt with the death of Walt’s wife. In the books, she died before the first story began after a battle with cancer. Martha Longmire likewise died before the TV series began, but it’s implied she died at the hands of a drug dealer in Colorado and Walt (and perhaps Henry) then killed her killer.

longmire logo

I’m glad to say, most of the way into the second season of “Longmire,” that the series has greatly improved.

Sure, star Robert Taylor and supporting cast like Katee Sackhoff were always good. But the second season – perhaps with input from Johnson himself, perhaps from a realization on the part of show creators Hunt Baldwin and John Coveny that Johnson gave them excellent material to work with and they should take advantage of it – has seen the show capture the spirit – and sometimes the letter – of the books.

The first episode of the second season, “Unquiet Mind,” echoed the “prisoners on the loose in mountainous countryside” plot of the seventh book, 2011’s “Hell is Empty.”

The third episode of this season, “Death Came in Like Thunder,” explored the Wyoming Basque community that’s a big part of the books. One of the characters omitted from the TV series is Basque deputy Santiago.

And the second season even returned to two major plotlines of the books: Cady Longmire’s serious injury at the hands of an attacker – although in the books it happens in Philly, where’s she’s practicing law – and deputy Vic’s history on the Philly PD.

The Native American spiritualism that seemed so missing from the first season was greatly felt in the second, climaxing in a scene where Walt – to atone for the killing of his wife’s killer – hooks his chest in “Man Called Horse” style and suffers in the blazing sun.

And although I haven’t seen it yet, I’m told an episode even features the TV series version of Lucian.

I can’t think of a recent TV series that improved so markedly from the first season to the second. I think if you’re a fan of the books, you’ll find more to like than just the character portrayals and tone this season. If you’re not a reader of the books, you’ll find an enjoyable crime drama unfolding on a weekly basis.